On the third day of the New Year the G.O.Tea Party Traveling Road Show and Clown Cavalcade will get serious – at least as serious as a Clown Cavalcade can ever get. On January 3, 2012 the Iowa Caucus will be held and actual votes will be cast for this sorry manifestation of the A.B.O. (Anybody But Obama) phenomenon.

It is pretty clear that only an irrational tsunami of distaste and disdain for Barack Obama could wash this collection of candidates on the political shores of this country. And it is pretty clear that lurking beneath contentions of opposition to the policies of President Obama is a racial animus that will remains unspoken except for the occasional slip.

We are witness to unprecedented insult and disrespect directed against President Obama and we are supposed to believe it is because he supported a bailout that saved the American automobile industry and millions of American jobs. Within hours of Barack Obama having taken the presidential oath of office Republicans united – not to pledge bipartisan cooperation or adherence to a set of policies that they believed were best for the American people – instead they united around the goal of making him a “one term president”.

This irrational pandemic has caused members of Congress to call President Obama a liar while he was addressing Congress. Apparently this has also liberated the caged racialist impulses of some Americans so that Barack Obama can be portrayed with a bone through his nose at Tea Party rallies and Michelle Obama’s physical features are fair game for public commentary.

This irrational pandemic has brought forth a collection of candidates that is so flawed that the G.O.Tea Party runs the real risk of their nominee being the victim of the A.B.B.U.R. (Anybody But a Republican) vote. In their desire to defeat President Obama because of who he is and what he is, the Republicans have assumed that any alternative will be successful – quality, competency, sanity and coherence be damned.

Consider that as this column is being written Congressman Ron Paul is leading in the Iowa polls and is a serious candidate nationally. The fact that Congressman Paul’s office has published a newsletter with serial racist rants for over twenty years has not damaged his standing as a candidate. The fact that Congressman Paul advocates the dismantling of the Federal Reserve Bank and multiple agencies of the federal government has garnered him the support of a cadre of zealots.

Newt Gingrich remains a leading candidate even though he has referred to Democrats as “Nazis” and claims that Freddie Mac paid him $1.6 million in consulting fees for his services as a “historian”. Newt Gingrich helped to engineer the last major shutdown of the federal government and his list of personal flaws and missteps contrasts with his hypocritical advocacy of “family values”.

As governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney advocated and passed legislation instituting mandatory universal healthcare for all citizens in that state. Now Mitt Romney claims that this would somehow be a bad thing for the citizens of the other 49 states. Mitt Romney wants you to believe that a career spent buying companies with borrowed money, laying off thousands of employees and bankrupting those companies at a profit somehow has prepared him to manage the largest economy on the planet.

We also have the likes to Michele Bachmann who believes that she was chosen by God to run for president and communes with Him on a regular basis. She claims to be well prepared for the office of president by virtue of her seat on the House Committee on Intelligence – a punch line waiting for a joke if there ever was one.

Rick Perry has been pilloried for his gaffes and flubs during the debate. But we should all be concerned about what he is trying to say about reducing federal services to Americans by closing down federal departments. His suit and tie barely disguises a rhetorical bomb throwing anarchist who would disembowel a system of governmental services upon which most Americans rely.

Rick Santorum would govern this country pursuant to “Christian beliefs” although it is not clear who would be the judge of what constitutes “Christian”. Certainly his opposition to gay marriage indicates a tolerance deficit in his version of Christianity.

Jon Huntsman has distinguished himself by not agreeing to participate in Donald Trump’s hokum debate. He has not espoused the insane agendas advanced by his competitors. But he is certainly no Profile In Courage when it comes to speaking truth to the madness.

And there is your G.O.Tea Party Cavalcade of Clowns. Imagining any one of them as President of the United States makes me miss Herman Cain. After all, anyone who would quote Donna Summer quoting a cartoon character is worth the price of admission.